Rear suspension epic noises...

[Davicho]

So, I have replaced rear shocks with Sensen shocks, Prothane sway bar bushings, eBay sway bar links and now upper and lower rubber spring mounts. Still get that occasional crunch/squeak noise when just me driving and always when fully loaded with 5-6 passengers. I'm just about to give up. I even wrapped the the top and bottom first coil of the springs with Teflon tape so that it was a smoother contact with it and the rubber seats. So my question now is to phunky and all you other guys that have completely replaced the OEM suspension with BC or any other coil over set up or adjustable camber arms. Do you still get the rear suspension noise even with the heavily modified aftermarket set up? Thanks

 

[Davicho]

So after replacing:

Sensen rear shocks
Prothane rear sway bar bushings
eBay sway bar links
Wrapping first top and bottom spring coils with Teflon tape
Replacing top rubber spring mount

To try to isolate the rear squeak noise when fully loaded or occasionally when empty. I went back to the rear Sensen shocks. These things were not blown and still rebounded good but something had given up where they became very noisy and were the main source of noise. I'm not saying that everything else I did didn't help or improved the problem. However, I can say that only after 15,000 miles these Sensen shocks were done. Luckily I had an extra free set they sent me, so I installed them and no noise at all. So we will see when they start making noise again.

Moral of the story:
Either these Sensen shocks are crap or our Mazda5s love to snack on rear shocks....or both!

 

[phunky.buddha]

Zero noise. It did take a hundred miles or so for the springs to completely settle into place though- until then there was a bit of rattle.

 

[Davicho]

Just to report back after a week and loading the 5 with all six occupants a couple of times. Not a single hint of noise. So, for those of you that start to get squeak noise in the rear. Start with checking your shocks. Mine didn't feel soft or bad but the noise was definately coming from them.